In the retail industry, labor is the number one expense after cost of goods sold. Employees working as “checkout personnel” or “cashiers” are the single largest category of labor. This is particularly true for those retailers in the food segment. On average, the retailer must have three or more cashiers trained for every checkout lane in a food store.
One problem for retailers is the cost associated with the recruiting, hiring, training, scheduling, managing, etc. of cashiers. This cost is exacerbated in that turnover in the food segment can easily exceed 100% annually, especially in metropolitan areas. It is not uncommon for food retailers to have significantly fewer cashiers on hand in a retail establishment than is optimally required. The constant recruiting, hiring, training, and scheduling of cashiers customers leads to significant management time and expense. Scheduling alone can make or break a retailer's performance on any given day and significantly impact customer service. By scheduling too many cashiers, the retailer has excess capacity and a higher cost of sales for the day. By scheduling too few cashiers, checkout queues grow long with angry customers who may not return due to poor customer service. Other customers may enter the store and go elsewhere due to the long lines. Checkout problems are typically the leading customer dissatisfaction issue for retailers.
Self Checkout (SCO) Terminals offer benefits to both the retailer and the customer. For the retailer, SCO terminals reduce the retailer's need for cashiers, thereby reducing the costs associated with them. Since SCO terminals are rarely closed, the job of predicting and scheduling cashier demand is made easier. For the customer, SCO terminals offer the perception of faster checkout, privacy, control, etc., and a significantly enhanced shopping experience.
Typical SCO solutions have adapted the technologies used in other customer service arenas, such as automated teller machines, bill paying kiosks and the like. In many cases, these customer service machines are perceived as lacking support for the customer throughout the transaction. In the case of an SCO system, the retailer must keep a cashier or clerk on hand to assist customers having difficulty navigating their way through a self-service checkout. In the case of other types of customer service machines, human assistance may be unavailable, leaving the customer no choice but to abort an attempted transaction when problems are encountered.
In using a typical SCO terminal the customer scans individual items for purchase across a scanner and then places the scanned item into a grocery bag, if desired. The customer then pays for his or her purchase either at the self-service checkout terminal if so equipped, or at a central payment area which is staffed by a store employee. Thus, SCO terminal permits a customer to select, itemize, and in some cases pay for his or her purchase without the assistance of the retailer's personnel.
However, a customer typically has little or no training in the operation of an SCO terminal or other types of customer service machines. One concern that retailers have when evaluating an SCO terminal is the level of supervision provided to inexperienced customers. Another concern is that a customer may attempt to shortcut a transaction when problems are encountered, resulting in irregularities in the transaction. A mutual concern for SCO terminals as well as unattended customer service machines is that customer frustration will lead them to abandon the self-service features and insist on conducting their transactions before a live cashier, clerk or teller. This frustration is felt not only by the customer having trouble completing a transaction, but also by other customers waiting in line for access to the customer service machine.
Most customer service or self-service machines include a screen which displays instructions intended to guide the customer through the transaction. Some displays include a picture or simulation of the necessary activity. Nevertheless, in spite of the comprehensiveness of the visual display, customers will still make errors or become intimidated of frustrated. What is needed therefore is customer service machine, such as an SCO terminal, which assists or otherwise interactively guides a customer in the use machine.